New Cultural and Political Perspectives on Serbian-Romanian Relations

Aleksandra Djurić Milovanović is an anthropologist and senior research fellow at the Institute for Balkan Studies, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Belgrade, Serbia). She received her PhD from the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade in 2012. Her research interests cover Serbian-Romanian relations, religious minorities, national minorities, cultural transfers and Balkan studies. Representative publications include: Double Minorities in Serbia. Distinctive Aspects of Religion and Ethnicity of Romanians in Vojvodina (2015) and Orthodox Christian Renewal Movements in Eastern Europe, co-edited with Radmila Radić (2017). She is a member of the Balkan History Association.Jovana Kolundžija is art historian and PhD candidate at the University of Belgrade, She has been a research fellow at the Institute for Balkan Studies SASA and is currently affiliated with the Center for Banat Studies as project coordinator. Her research includes eighteenth-century Serbian art, religious painting, Serbian baroque, visual culture and Habsburg heritage in Serbia. She is a member of the Balkan History Association.Mircea Măran is a full professor of history at the Preschool Teacher training college "Mihailo Palov" in Vršac, Serbia. Măran’s main area of interest are the history of Banat, the Romanian minority in Serbia and cultural history between the two world wars. He is the author of 12 books, Representative titles include: Romanii din Banatul sârbesc în anii interbelici (1918–1941) pagini de istorie culturală (2012), Biserica Ortodoxă română din Banatul Iugoslav (1918–1941) with A. Djurić Milovanović (2019) and Românii din Voivodina – istorie, demografie, identitate românească în localitățile Voivodinei (2009). He is a member of the Balkan History Association.Otilia Hedeșan is an anthropologist and professor of Romanian civilization and culture at the West University of Timișoara. She is the coordinator of the Research Centre for Heritage and Anthropology. Her main areas of research are storytelling, Romanian mythology in its contemporary aspects, the history of Romanian ethnology in the communist and post-communist period, and food as cultural heritage. She has undertaken field research in Romania, Serbia, Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova. She has written and edited many books and articles.Christene D’Anca is a lecturer at California Lutheran University, as well as at her alma mater, the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she received her PhD in comparative literature, with an emphasis in medieval studies. She specializes in twelfth- to fourteenth-century funerary arts, female patronage and socio-cultural studies. Her recent publications include essays in Early Middle English and the Journal of Animal Ethics.

"This volume, the first of its kind, covers political diplomatic, cultural and religious relations between the Romania and Serbia, seen through the processes that shaped the two nations over the past two centuries, but also through case studies of prominent diplomats, educators, artists, rulers and statesmen. The result is a comprehensive survey of Romanian-Serbian relations based on serious archival research, leading to new and more inclusive perspectives. I am quite convinced that the collection will become a standard guide for all those interested in the relations between Serbs and Romanians."—Prof. Slobodan G. Markovich, University of Belgrade"Historically, relations between neighboring nations and the people who populated them, have at various points been plagued by conflict. Yet it is difficult to cast complete blame on either side as it can be surmised that the actions taken were a result of people subject to their times. However, aside from confrontations, neighboring states also cooperated, fought together in the interest of common values, against invaders, while they also intermarried, thus enhancing both cultures. The present volume is a successful attempt by Romanian and Serbian specialists to find the political-diplomatic, cultural, and artistic interferences, that amounted to the elements of cooperation between Romanians and Serbs in the last centuries. Such instances of alliance, far from few in number, certainly prevailed in the history of the two nations, and they shaped the destiny of Romania and Serbia into the modern and contemporary eras."—Prof. dr Ioan Bolovan, Institutul de Istorie “George Bariţ” Cluj-Napoca and University Babeș-Bolyai Cluj-Napoca

• Aleksandra Djurić Milovanović/Mircea Măran/Christene D’Anca: Introduction – Miodrag Milin/Victor Neumann: The Idea of Nationality among Romanians in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy: The Political Involvement of Vincențiu Babeș, Andrei, and Alexandru Mocsonyi as Representatives of the Banat Region – Ivana Spasović: Romanians and Serbs in the Banat Military Border – Felicia Aneta Oarcea: Romanian-Serbian Relations Reflected in Vasile Popeangă’s Works. Historiographical Insight – Srđan Mićić: Boško Čolak-Antić and Yugoslav-Romanian Relations – Anđelija Miladinović: Maria of Yugoslavia: Romanian Princess, Yugoslav Queen – Dragan Bakić: The First Yugoslav Ambassador: Jovan Dučić in Romania, 1937–1940 – Vladimir Lj. Cvetković: Josip Broz Tito, Petru Groza and Yugoslav-Romanian Relations 1945–1947 – Nemanja Mitrović: Tito’s and Ceauşescu’s Personal Contribution to the Development of Yugoslav-Romanian Cooperation in the Late 1960s and Early 1970s – Raluca Prelipceanu: The Circulation of Icon Painters between Banat and Transylvania during the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries – Jovana Kolundžija: Stefan Tenecki: The Baroque Painter of Serbs and Romanians – Maria Alexandra Pantea/Virginia Popović: Serbian Intellectuals from Arad, Personalities of Central Europe – Mircea Măran/Aleksandra Djurić Milovanović: Vladimir Dimitrijević and Serbian-Romanian Church Relations in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries – Octavia Nedelcu/Gordana-Nicoleta Peici: Romanian-Serbian Literary Relations at the Beginning of the Millennium – Diana Mihuț: In-between Local Identity and National Artistic Heritage. A Case Study: Naive Painting from Uzdin – Acknowledgments – Notes on Editors and Contributors – Index.